"Bamboozle"
originally a slang or cant word, perhaps Scottish
from bombaze: "perplex,"
or Fr. embabuiner: "to make a fool
(baboon) of" (Online Etymology Dictionary);
"to deceive or get the better of (someone) by
trickery, flattery, or the like; hoodwink;
to practice trickery or deception (Random House Dictionary).
This Blog is one citizen's attempt to speak forthrightly
and to question those who
would bombastically deceive
and mislead the public.

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Saturday, November 21, 2015

In my last post, I discussed
the broad strategies of the Nazi Party of the 1930’s related to the takeover of
a small town in central Germany; the town of Northeim, as told in the book, “The
Nazi Seizure of Power” by William Sheridan Allen.Author Allen told us about some of the
strategies used, and I summarized them under four large headings: 1)Use Outside Threat(s), 2) Use False Hope, 3) Send in the Storm
Troopers, and 4) Seize Complete Control.
In today’s post, it is important to explore the tactics used by the
Nazis at the grass-roots level, in order to bring that town, and all of
Germany, within its complete control.

It is of great importance in
our current circumstances to illuminate the one weapon used most effectively by
the Nazis, and that is the engendering of reactions that further their
cause. The point cannot be over-blown
that what ISIS counts on in terms of their strategies and tactics is the
reaction of those who are on the receiving end of their threats. They must be overjoyed by what they have
seen, particularly in the United States.
In France and Europe, they are witnessing a growing concern to restrict
air travel, to tighten entry surveillance, to ramp up all kinds of additional surveillance,
and to lessen the restrictions on search and seizure. It is quite similar to the reactions of the
Bush administration after 9/11. The more
reactions they provoke that instill fear and restriction of freedom, the closer
they are to their goal of total control.

More to the point, ISIS must
be absolutely exuberant over the Xenophobia exhibited by most of the Republican
presidential candidates (along with a majority of Governors and a huge
majority of the House Representatives who pushed legislation to keep Syrian
refugees out of the country for now).
The candidates and their followers have issued all kinds of warnings and
actions regarding keeping Syrians from crossing our borders for fear that some
of them may be Jihadist terrorists. Calling for substantial boots on the ground
in Syria, as well as taking restrictive and prejudicial actions against
Muslims, are additional actions and attitudes that serve the Jihadists’
cause. Take just the one example of
about eight Syrian refugees (including four
children) who presented themselves at the Mexican-US border in Texas. That circumstance was immediately used by
Donald Trump (and others) as a foregone conclusion that they could be
terrorists. Turns out, they were
families with children who presented themselves to authorities rather than
crossing undetected (i.e. illegally).

One point: those who react with threats of war and
threats of more surveillance and repressive actions that reduce individual
rights are playing right into the hands of the terrorists, as the citizens of
Germany did with the Nazis of long ago.

The over-reactors like Trump
and Carson are cultivating the possibility of new members for the very
terrorist cells that they want to destroy.
They lay the groundwork for recruitment of new Jihadist members by
lumping all Muslims into the terrorist camp, and especially referring to refugees as "rabid dogs." Those outcomes are exactly what the Nazis wanted, and are a tremendous
help to the Jihadi terrorists in preparing the groundwork for attitudes upon
which they can build. Let us, then, not
support those who unwittingly support the terrorists by their words and
actions. Creating fear, suspicion,
xenophobia and repression is not helpful, and the radical Republicans fail
miserably in understanding that their reactions are helping to build the ISIS
movement.

In addition, we have to point
out the obvious: the problem is not with Syrian refugees. There were no Syrian
refugees involved in the latest attacks in Paris. And,
of the 2,000 Syrian refugees accepted into our country since 2011, NONE have
been arrested or deported for terrorism! The real problem is the fertile ground in
which home-grown terrorists are being cultivated (recruited and trained) by
ISIS for terrorist activity. And that
problem is exacerbated by xenophobic congressmen and women, and Republican
presidential candidates (and others) who scapegoat innocent refugees (75% of
whom are women and children). The
engendering of fear, hatred and scapegoating is a betrayal of our core American
values. It is also a classic tactic
utilized by radical rightists in their quest for absolute power. We should have learned this long ago.

With some editorial comment
from me, I hope this posting will enable you to detect the parallel actions of
radical Right Republicans and of Jihadi terrorists as compared with Nazis of
the 1930’s. Most recent events and past
atrocities have indicated the fascist tendencies of ISIS and reactions to some
of those events and their consequences have also shown more clearly what stripes
are being carried by the Right-wing radicals of the Republican Party. Here are a few of the Nazi tactics that
deserve your scrutiny and understanding in relation to our own national
circumstances.

Incessant propaganda – Republican radicals are particularly adept at
this with unified themes and emphasis right down to the synchronized wording
used by local operatives. Not only
do they make use of propaganda to convince an unthinking public of their
beliefs and policies, they use lies and manufactured crises and threats to
put fear in voters’ lives and misconceptions into their heads. Just
like Jihadi Terrorists, radical Republicans use this tactic to recruit new
members as well.

Keep records – of all kinds: who attends meetings; topics that work; numbers in
the audiences, etc. Donald Trump’s
suggestion for a database to track Syrian refugees (and other Middle
Easterners) fits exactly into this tactic, as do special ID cards
suggested by others.

Adapt message to audience – adapt to public interests and what works. Pandering to their ultra-conservative
base is something most right-wing Republicans do best.

Castigate the oppositionand keep doing it; use violence when necessary or
expedient. One mechanism that
worked well in Northeim was a weekly Nazi newsletter that contained
furious attacks on the communists and the city council. Jihadists tend to use electronic means
and Republicans tend to use TV, especially Fox News, but are now using
electronic social media and databases at a more effective level. There are many examples of this from
Republicans, but none as graphic and hate-filled as their acknowledged excoriation
of President Obama at every opportunity.

Project an image of fervent patriotism and avid militarism. Radical Republicans use this tactic
whenever possible because Americans are generally receptive to it, as it
is an integral part of the American experience. Donald Trump may be the epitome of tough
talk that spurs nationalistic fervor, but John McCain has always been the
stirrer of the pot when it comes to war-talk. This last week, Republicans took
advantage of two circumstances that presented themselves: the terrorist
bombings in Paris and the rejection of Syrian refugees in some 31 states,
culminating in the House passage of restrictive legislation pertinent to
Syrian refugees.Such reactions were
nothing more than bluster as most military solutions proposed by the Republicans for
battling the terrorists have already been implemented by President Obama.State restrictions on refugees are
nothing more than symbols of toughness because Governors have no say over
federal law that governs what happens with those seeking asylum or
protection in this country. Nonetheless, they serve to promote nationalism and militarism.

Send in the Stormtroopers – demonstrations of strength and violence are
intimidating to most, and attractive to some. Terrorism works to impress certain
groups which is why the Troopers attended most Nazi rallies in their
brown-shirt uniforms.

Radical Republicans don’t support gun violence just
because they support the 2nd amendment right to own firearms. They also support secret and not-so-secret
militias; unrestricted carry and self-defense laws, and guns for children. They vigorously support the idea that the
more people carrying guns, the better prepared they are to fight off an
out-of-control central government. Their
main objective is not a second amendment right to own a gun, but having the
ability and power to take over a government that challenges their views, their
politics and their way of life.

Support and infiltrate local governments and offices – important to Nazi takeover and to
radical Republican takeover (they have already made gains in municipal
areas by running for school boards, councils and legislatures).

Pick on an enemy (or scapegoat) – choose one that others will
also identify as a problem –like Jews in Europe, illegal immigrants in
America, and Christians or Israelis in the Middle East. Just recently, Republicans chose to make
the Syrian refugees the target of their villainous Xenophobia, potentially
denying thousands of young families the ability to seek the safety and
protection of this land. At least twenty-eight Republican governors actually have led the fight to
exclude those refugees from their states, in defiance of federal law, and
50 Democrat Representatives in the House just supported Republican passage
of a bill that will do just that, but the President has vowed to veto.

Join local organizations and movements and then promote and proclaim
one’s own philosophy and cause(s) at every opportunity. Ever been to a school board meeting or a
coalition of churches where right-wingers are in abundance and are
attempting to impose their beliefs on everyone present? It’s not pretty.

Use religion as a pawn—the Nazis warned the faithful to beware of
fundamentally anti-church socialists and communists who were
atheists. They also excoriated the Weimar Republic which they said leaned toward communism and therefore
would damage the Christian (Lutheran) church. Sound familiar? Republicans constantly warn their
Evangelical friends to be wary of the anti-Christian and socialist
leanings of the national government.

Voter restrictions to combat voter fraud, walling off borders, abortion and same-sex marriage have been lead
subjects for Republicans – why? Because
they know this is the way to garner solid support from middle class
church-goers for what is essentially an immoral approach to denying homosexuals,
African-Americans and Hispanic Americans (particularly Mexicans who
cross our border illegally) as well as poor women and children certain benefits
and rights to which they are entitled. The Republican support for the county
clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples on
religious grounds is the epitome of this kind of manipulation of religion. For Ultra-Rightists, Religion
is a means to an end: a very useful pawn in their battle for control of
people’s lives and their votes.

Organize to assist workers and others down on their luck – when the
depression got worse, the Nazis organized a soup kitchen to feed the
unemployed but went even further to provide bed and shelter for those in
need of a place to stay. This tactic
is well-known to both Radical Republicans and to Jihadists who have done
similar “good works” in their respective areas. It is a tactic and not charity, for
they expect to recruit new members from such activities, much like the
evangelical missionaries of a by-gone day and certain faith communities
today. The pandering of Republican
presidential candidates to the pressing needs of the working class is
another example of this. What they plan to do when in office is quite
different, for they plan to destroy the programs and policies that aid the
“unwashed” and the “unworthy” (read their budgets!).

Emphasize youth membership and give them very visible things to accomplish
– by keeping its activities as much social and adventurous as political,
the Hitler Youth groups for boys and for girls made a lasting impression
on its members and on the community.
Republicans are paying special attention to religion-affiliated
colleges where more right-wing students can be found to join the Young Republicans.

Destroy trust in government and its leaders – the Nazis attacked and vilified a particular
senator in the Civic Association of Northeim. They did it for a reason that explains
why Republican radicals vilify and downgrade government and prominent
office-holders every chance they get. It’s also why they themselves act in
a seemingly raucous and mean-spirited manner. It is clear that radical Republican
debasing of the political process and of the leadership of that process
(including the President, the Majority Leader of the Senate and the former
Speaker of the House) has produced a repugnance among the citizenry for
the whole process of governing.
This attitude exists to the extent that a majority of Republican
voters now favor outsiders (non-politicians) as their candidates for President
in 2016. The chief effect of the
blockages, disharmony, disarray; the partisan bickering and the relentless
attacks on President Obama is not to turn people away from a particular
Party necessarily, but to undermine the People’s trust and respect for
government itself and for its leaders.
Why? Because that very distrust and disgust can be used by a
radical group to worm its way into power with a promise to make everything
right through a strong authoritarian leader (Hitler, by the way, was a
definite outsider and so were many of the local Nazi leaders!).

Use and abuse the election processto win offices and to gain control. This must be a never-ending pursuit and
the Nazis did so over decades until elections were no longer needed. Gerrymandered districts, Super-PACs, attacks
on voter registration and ability to vote, plus attempts to manipulate the
actual returns and voting processes are all ways that Republican radicals
have used and abused the election process.
The fact that the Supreme Court has joined in this strategy by
approving legal bribery in their Citizens United decision is abominable.

Although there may be other
tactics used, the point of this exercise was mainly to point out that when we
citizens see such tactics and strategies in isolation from one another, we
think little of it as a movement or conspiracy.That misperception turned out to cause major problems for the residents
of Northeim.We cannot close our eyes to
a collection of tactics that are now extant, now being used by ISIS, and more
especially by the radical Right-wing of the Republican Party (abetted by more
moderate Republicans who do not speak out when they should).The author of “The Nazi Seizure of Power” presents some compelling conclusions for
our consideration, as he asks the question: "what is to be learned from Northeim’s experiences?” More on that next time.

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

The story begins in a small
town in Germany in the 1920’s.It was
not, in many ways, an average German town.It was mostly middle class and more rural than industrial.It was overwhelmingly Lutheran, and
surprisingly, it turned to Nazism earlier and more strongly than the rest of
Germany.Nonetheless, it had some
representative characteristics:sociological strengths and weaknesses of the Social Democrats; nationalistic
attitudes of the local middle class; the growth of partisan activity and
violence.In other ways, it emulated small
towns the world over, with its gossip, lack of privacy and the mostly benign social
interactions of daily life.

The setting is the town of
Northeim, located in the center of prewar Germany, a town in the former Kingdom
of Hanover. In the days of the Weimar
Republic, it was still a small town with a population of about 10,000. About one of every seven Germans lived in
such towns. In 1930, Northeim was the
“kind of town that English tourists were fond of discovering: provincial and
off the beaten track, semi-medieval. It
was nestled against one of the many low, wooded foothills that frame the valley
of the Leine River. It gave the town a
sense of being snug, enclosed, protected from the outer world, symbolized by walls
around part of the town, enclosing a medieval core of Northeim.

Within an oval about six hundred yards long
was a neat but imprecise jumble of half-timbered houses with steep red-tiled
roofs along winding cobble-stone streets.
Along this main commercial avenue (Broad Street) were shops in about
every house. In the middle of the town
was a wide square used for the weekly produce market and for open-air
meetings. Other open spaces included one
in front of town hall, another in front of the large sixteenth-century Lutheran
Church. There were over five hundred
houses in this old section for almost half of the townspeople lived there. Emanating from that inner core were three
areas where the town had expanded up the hill and toward each of the two
rivers, one district for the rich, two others for the lower classes. The center and essence of the town was that
old medieval city surrounded by slowly crumbling walls.

As in much of Germany, World
War I brought significant change, including a revolution led by the working
class that overthrew the Kaiser and established a democratic Republic. It created divisions and affiliations that
had not previously been as pronounced. Many Northeimers
refused to accept the new state of affairs and became a relatively strong center
for a far rightist organization, and nationalistic farmers. On the other side were Socialists of whom
many were students. An indication of
those divisions comes from the results of voting in the 1925 Presidential
election:

Socialist-Catholic candidate – 2.080 votes;

Rightists – 3,375 votes;

Communist – 19 votes.

In addition, there
were class lines between workers and bourgeois; occupational lines between the
stable and the insecure; areas of segregation between the relative newcomers
and the old families, and there were religious and social divisions. There were also, of course, areas of common
interest and cohesion such as local government, schools, clubs and interest
groups. They were somewhat united by
religion as 86% of the townspeople were Lutheran.

The whole area where Northeim
was situated had a reputation for being stubborn and reserved, as New
Englanders were often said to be. One
man who came to Northeim in 1930 found that it “took him two years to get to
know anyone well and to be accepted in social circles, even though he was
fairly extroverted and held a job of high prestige.”

One final set of numbers
reveals the class structure of the town in which there was certainly a petite
bourgeoisie: the raw material from which Hitler forged his movement.

The book is titled “The
Nazi Seizure of Power” by William Sheridan Allen. The author’s intention was to “understand one
of the central political and moral problems of the twentieth century: "how a
civilized democracy could be plunged into a nihilistic dictatorship.” This posting today is a lesser attempt to
shine a little light on two groups who, in my estimation, mirror too many of the
activities and beliefs of that nihilistic, ultra-nationalistic movement.

It is impossible in this
limited space and time, to present this thesis in great detail. However, even an outline of the similarities
between the beliefs and activities of the Nazi movement of the early twentieth
century and those of Radical Right Republicans and the radical Jihadist
terrorists of ISIS (or ISIL) is chilling enough to lead us to conclude that
vigilance is a necessity. Sometimes Americans are led to pay far too much
attention to the authoritarian and extremist views of the far Left (communism;
socialism) and far too little to the nihilistic and destructive terrorism and
authoritarianism of the extremists of the far Right (is that a 'tactic' in
itself?).

Let us return to the book to
begin our research for this outline of similarities. It is difficult to evoke or maintain a stable
democracy in the midst of mass extremism, intolerance, a desperate desire for
radical (or regressive) change, and a moral passivity. All those factors and more were present in Germany then and in our nation now as the fertile “breeding grounds” for right-wing extremists. Let us briefly explore the
strategies the Nazis of Northeim used to reap the harvest of control.

1)Use
Outside Threat(s). In 1930, “it
was the depression or more accurately, the fear of its continued effects that
contributed most heavily to the radicalization of Northeim’s people.” Said one keen observer: “Most of those who
joined the Nazis did so because they wanted a radical answer to the economic
problem. Then too, the people wanted a
hard, sharp, clear leadership – they were disgusted with the eternal political
strife of party politics.”

There can be
little doubt that the “Great Recession” of 2008 and beyond has been the
breeding ground for radicalization in our time.
Economic uncertainty is the same for Tea Partiers as it is for Jihadists. It not only is a major contributor to their
extremist views, but it is also a major impetus for their takeover of the
entire political structure. However, that
is not the only threat upon which the radicals have seized. Republican radicals have promoted threats of
all kinds:

socialism as personified in the Affordable Care Act;

potential terrorist attacks from Al Qaeda and ISIS,

an invasive national government,

potential loss of Social Security and Medicare because
of insolvency,

the foreign-born President with Marxist background,

threat of invasion by foreign forces,

threat to Christianity from Jihadists and from sharia
law,

threats to our capitalist free enterprise system from
regulators,

threats
to our Christian heritage and ethical underpinnings from abortionists, homosexuals, and Islam;

threats
to our national security from cyber-hackers

threats
to our personal privacy and security from our own government as in monitoring
of emails and phone calls

Disguised
as threats to jobs or property values or law itself is the threat of illegal
immigration which radical Republicans cannot refrain from stressing for it is
at its base, an unspoken threat to white control and power which they cannot
abide losing

Jihadist
terrorists are not much better, but encapsulate it all in the threat from
America, the Great Satan.

It
is not just the enumeration of threats that is important here: it is the
engendering of fear(s) (at the core of their strategy and tactics) that can only be eliminated, it is declared, by the takeover
of the rough and tough Jihadists and Tea Partiers.

2)Use False
Hope of a better future by
returning to past Glory, Prosperity or Security.

This often
involves not only a regression to a “better time” but a re-vitalization of
fundamental religious tenets and practices and an urgent appeal to nationalism
or national pride.

The radical
Republicans want us to return to either the Reagan era, the 1920's and the
Gilded Age, or perhaps even the 1890's when a much smaller national government
was in existence and several large American
industries like GE and IBM were being founded and others flourishing under capitalist
innovators and entrepreneurs with few restrictions on their monopolistic
operations. It was a time of merriment
and optimism in spite of a severe recession in 1893.

The radical
Jihadists are intent on establishing an Islamic Caliphate that is in some sense
equivalent to the Third Reich, but with much greater emphasis on religious tenets. The Caliphate is a parallel entity to the
concept of The Third Reich meant to cover several countries and to unite
Germanic peoples from different lands under one regime. The Caliphate is meant to do the same by
uniting a religious community across borders.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this modern attempt to establish
a Caliphate:

“The group Al Qaeda in Iraq
formed as an affiliate of the al Qaeda network of Islamist militants during the
Iraq War. The group eventually expanded into Syria and rose to prominence as
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) during the Syrian Civil War. In
the summer of 2014, the group launched an offensive in northern Iraq, seizing
the city of Mosul and most recently taking control of large swathes of
territory in Syria (which for a prolonged period of time comprised over 50% of
that country and Iraq). The group declared itself a Caliphate under Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi, who took the name and title of Caliph Ibrahim, and renamed itself
as the "Islamic State." ISIS's
claim to be the highest authority of Muslims has not been widely recognized
beyond the territory it controls with 10 million people.”

3)Offer the Strong Man.
It cannot be under-stated that
one of the most attractive pieces of Nazi philosophy to the German locals was
that of Social Darwinism: the myth that a strong man in charge will make all
things right again, and contribute to the strength of the Aryan race at the
same time. It was epitomized in Hitler,
but emulated down the line even by local Nazi operatives and the local
officials they put in office. It is also
important to recognize the place of intimidation and violence in the myth of
the strong man. The existence of the SS
and more especially the “Sturmmabteilung”
or Stormtroopers was a key element in the intimidation of the middle class.

Perhaps the
most important aspect of the concept was the honor, veracity and competence
associated with the strong man who could get anything done for the cause and
for the People. In Northeim, this was a
key to their strategy of takeover – the Nazis ran things to perfection, whether
it was a parade, a meeting, a demonstration or a soup kitchen or employment
office. They made sure that their
strength showed in their competence, their timeliness and in the results.

Need
I mention the obvious – “the Donald.”
You are listening carefully to him aren’t you? Be careful of your assessment. There were many who considered Hitler a clown
and a showman. The words are those of a
Social Darwinist; of someone who believes that might makes right or will win the
day. When that strong man theme is
echoed by every other Republican candidate, including Carly Fiorina, it is time
to pay attention! We are talking about authoritarianism – the principle of
subjection to authority as opposed to a principle of individual freedom. We’re talking about the actions of a
potentially peremptory, dictatorial strong man (or woman).

ISIS
followers thrive on this – on being the strong man able to kill children, rape
women, behead men – without a thought or pang of conscience whatsoever. These Jihadists celebrate their cruelty and
their horrific acts of shooting down airplanes leaving no survivors; or killing innocent people all
over the streets and by-ways of Paris. They
believe they were sent to do this work in order to establish and maintain the
Islamic Caliphate. They are murderers
and abdominal representatives of their religion. Like their religion-less
precursors of decades ago (who still exist in too many forms), they must be
marked for destruction. How that should
be done is a question for another time.

4) Gain Total
Control. If you do not understand that phrase, then
you do not understand the ultimate objectives of the Nazis, the Jihadists or
the radical Republicans.

It involves a purge of leadership, then of the
middle management and finally of the rank and file workers.

Then comes the dismantling of the mechanisms of democracy itself – the vote, the rights,
the freedoms, along with much of bureaucracy, liberal judges, ‘socialist’
leaders, and programs (sound familiar?)

Then comes retribution and punishment as
opposition leaders and even rank and file are imprisoned or lose their jobs and
property.

Meanwhile new
mechanisms are put in place to allow the flow of top-down decisions from
the President (“Fuhrer”) to the local operatives.

Nationalism
becomes the religion and schools, organizations, agencies, even churches become
propaganda machinery.

Power, brutality and immediate justice often
without trial become the norm.

Oppression, repression and terrorism are used as
weapons to keep order and to ensure loyalty to the regime

Rumors,
lies, distortions, neighborhood spies and press reports are used to inject more
fear into the populace

Social life
is cut to a minimum and political parties outlawed to prevent people from
meeting and planning together

Resignation
and futility take hold of the
citizenry as complete control is achieved.

Just in case you haven't noticed, the Republican radicals are adept at twisting all of this around to make it look as though it is the Opposition that engages in these activities. Often, instead of reference to President Obama as a socialist, some lackey of the Right-wing will accuse him of being a Nazi or a fascist. It's difficult, to say the least, to have it both ways. It is simply a diversionary tactic to draw citizen attention away from the horrific activities of Radical Right-wing Republicans.

Let us end this piece today with
the above list of strategies that took advantage of the breeding grounds for
the Nazi takeover of Northeim and of Germany.
Next time we shall explore the kinds of tactics used by the Nazis to win
over the people of towns like Northeim, and the conclusions of the author as to
what can be learned from that experience.
With some editorial comment from me, I hope my next posting will enable
you to detect the parallel actions of radical Right Republicans and of Jihadi
terrorists who simply share the goal of total political, economic and social control of their respective societies.